Android N is here: have you heard? Of course you have (well, maybe a bit earlier than even we expected), because the internet is freaking littered with Android N news right now. But one piece you may not have broken out amongst all the ruckus was exactly when N is launching for real (read: this summer), as opposed to a developer preview. Well, Hiroshi Lockheimer, head of Android (and Chrome OS / Chromecast) at Google, dropped a little nugget of relevant info today in a post on Medium about Android N.

Lockheimer goes over a number of things we already know, but one novel piece of information comes in the form of timing for Android N going forward. Specifically, Lockheimer says Android N will be available to OEMs in "final release" form this summer. Now, the wording here is important - "final release" means ready to ship, at least as far as Google's end of the bargain is concerned. And "summer," for those of us not seasonally inclined, provides a window of June 21st to September 21st, though I would hedge my bets in favor of the first half of that period if I were you.

In the post, titled "N, as in: so early, it's Not Named yet ;)," Lockheimer references the lack of N's formal name with a pun, saying Google is "nut tellin" what they'll be calling the new version yet. This is a joke. Hiroshi Lockheimer is not confirming that Android N will be called Nutella. Android N could be called Nutella, but this name is no more likely, in our opinion, than any other potential candidate at this point. Android version names are usually decided down the road closer to a version's official launch, so like Hiroshi says, even inside Google it's highly likely N doesn't have a name yet.

An update timeline on Google's own website indicates final release of N should occur some time in or after July in Q3 of this year. With Hiroshi's statement on the summer being the release timeframe, that narrows things down to a range of some time in July at earliest and possibly all the way up to September 21st at the latest.

So the chances of Android N being released this summer is better than my Verizon V10 getting Android M #fail

makapav

1. On Verizon.
2. Bought a non-Nexus/Motorola phone.
3. #updatefail

jawsnnn

At this point, it makes no sense to buy a non-nexus phone if you are interested in using the latest Android version. Android is and always will be fragmented - it's one of the reasons why it's so ubiquitous.

Ben

You never know, Marshmallow might get to 10% of devices by then!

someone755

10.1 if we're lucky!

Protoss

you dont care about those OEMs-devices-owners peasants when you have a Nexus device XD

TriguyRN

I feel you but, my only reason for caring is I want the brand image to look good haha

roberto.elena

I have 2 different smartphones and Marshmallow is in 100% of them. In my opinion 90% of people don't choose well.

dilharo

Or you just buy a google prefered phone like nexus or android one to experience the latest os as it release

Demonstr8r

Android Nougat

JD

Built for everyone... Except you guys in the corner. Get rid of your working Nexus 4 and 5 then you can join us.

JD

Android will be ready in the summer....
So New Nexus(Nexii?) will launch sooner this year?
Please real follow up to Nexus 5 2013.

#tihor

you gotta hand it to Google for blowing us away..there wasn't even a single rumour abt Android N coming out now !

RadarJammer

While the Moto X Play has 6.0.1 already.

drs6

Does this mean that new Nexus hardware would be coming out so soon as well?

someone755

You mean something like a decent and decently priced tablet?

Urban K

let's see if Samsung can keep up to implement this is the upcoming Note 6

EMBRAA

Nougat

Dastardly

You got it. Mind blowing, isn't it? (no pun intended)

alpha2beta

September 22

ConCal

A Nexus in the Summer? I'm down.

Nuno G.

Summer?! Probably as usual in October...

ConCal

Yeah it's usually launched with the release of the next version of Android. And since it looks like Android will be released around August, there is also a highly likelihood of a Nexus around then. Just a guess, but probable givem the earlier than usual release of Android N.

John

If there is no name, we should just call it Android N-word.

ChrisGX

Maybe I don't read Android Police enough but it was a reassuring surprise to see an article containing speculations on product release dates and names that owns up to the speculations rather than attempting to masquerade as a 'leak' or 'investigative report'. It is a sad fact that having one's intelligence insulted in this way has become the norm. I am glad to see your publication resisting this trend. Whether a product is released in July or September probably doesn't matter very much and again it is good to see sensibly formed speculations supported by cogent conjectures that neither claim to have swept away all uncertainty nor amplified the significance of that uncertainty to an absurd degree.

On a matter of purely personal opinion, I hope that the 'N' in 'Android N' does not signify 'Nutella'. I think that with the advantage of hindsight Google's normal approach of using a generic term for some sweet or desert has proved to be the right approach. The KitKat release marketing was crass in comparison to the rest and hopefully Google won't want to revisit that experience.